And ideas don’t fall from the sky while having a drink with friends.
Welcome to the Creaverse, the new section that explores the creative world of the minds behind the – best – advertising campaigns. In each episode, we dive into the sources of inspiration, the methods and the sometimes unusual ideas that fuel the creatives of this constantly evolving sector.
Already the 5th opus with Clara Noguiercreative director at the DDB Paris agency, AD past DC, Sherlock of creation with his partner Olivier Watson and an expert on dog breeds.
It’s a sultry summer night, the cicadas are singing, but your mind remains stuck on this ambitious campaign for a designer furniture brand. Fatigue threatens you, but the pitch is for tomorrow. Where do you find the energy or inspiration to turn the obstacle into an opportunity?
Clara Noguier : First of all, I love the set-up. I suddenly feel like an author fleeing the city to seek inspiration in the countryside. To be very honest, I spent my junior years reading all the remedies and methods to “break the blank sheet”. It almost became an obsession, as if there was a secret formula that everyone could access and that worked every time.
I am finally quite happy to tell myself that such a formula does not exist. Every project is different, and inspiration is a pretty volatile thing. It obviously takes a lot of work and curiosity to develop it, but the small initial spark remains a miracle that is born at the intersection of several elements.
Read articles on the subject we are working on, watch interviews, scroll on TikTok (yes, sometimes you find insights there)… But for me, all of this comes to fruition during a discussion. I need to write down my ideas and then discuss things with Olivier, my partner for 10 years. Confronting our ideas and our starting points is how we have been building our concepts all this time. We are always obsessed with finding the IDEA. The one, among all those noted in our notebooks, that we remember before going to bed and which is still there when we wake up. Even if, sometimes, between the initial inspiration and the final idea, there is not much left in common.
You brought together 2 creative teams for another pitch, and it’s not moving forward. Ideas don’t come, or they’re beside the point. What do you do to address this general lack of inspiration?
C.N. : These are fairly recurring situations in pitching. There is always that moment when, after presenting the brief, the ultimate question is asked: “Is everything clear to you?”, and we realize, once the work begins, that things were ultimately not as clear as they made it appear.
In these moments, my partner and I consider that our role is played precisely here. This is where the whole challenge of being a “good” DC reveals itself: knowing how to untie the knots and provide reading keys. Sometimes, this involves design work with the teams, taking the time, during the creative points, to carefully dissect each starting point and give enough material to the creatives so that they can bounce back or see the brief from a different perspective. another angle.
But sometimes it happens that we do design to find ideas that we then share with creative people so that they can develop them. However, we try to do this as little as possible, because it’s a bit like when you’re faced with a math problem: if you know that you’re going to be able to copy from your friend on each test, you make less effort. , and your motivation to learn inevitably decreases. Everything must be done in good intelligence to push the creative product towards the best but also the capabilities of each team.
How do your ideas come from? Nothing but spontaneity, chaos, chaos… or do you have a proven method for bringing them to life?
C.N. : As I explained in the first question, this question cannot have a single answer in my eyes. Ideas come by thinking, imagining, exchanging, and there is no magic formula to make them appear. So I think I’d be lying if I said that an idea pops into your head while you’re having a drink with your friends. You obviously have to turn your brain on and make connections.
With Olivier, we like to compare ourselves to detectives in detective series: those who stand in front of a cork board, filled with clues, and pull red threads between them to find the solution. For me, that’s a bit like how ideas are born: by combining starting points and facts.
Creaverse is about inspirations, what is the last thing or image that inspired you?
C.N. : Lately, it was Demi Moore’s speech at the Golden Globes that particularly inspired me. I saw The Substance quite late, and I can’t say it’s the kind of film I like at first glance. But I let myself be surprised by a style that completely took me out of my habits. The words that Demi Moore said in front of the entire Hollywood industry that evening obviously touched me. But beyond the emotion, they pushed me to get out of my comfort zone.
We often tend to believe that these personalities lack few things, that they have access to everything, and that they only encounter “rich people’s problems”. However, I found the sincerity of his speech much more inspiring than I would have imagined.
This speech made me want to tell myself that you shouldn’t always choose the same types of characters when you write a script, that sometimes, not pleasing everyone at first can be a good thing. And above all, that going against the expected can take us to places we never thought we would explore ourselves.
And the one that intrigued you (WTF)?
C.N. : Like many people during the Christmas break, I watched season 2 of Squid Game. And, like many people, I came across this rumor circulating on the networks, according to which the place which inspired the series really existed. I have seen montages using AI-generated images, extremely well done, which have sowed doubt in many people. A video explains the rumor and the fact-checking that followed.
I was fascinated to see, in the comments, the number of people who absolutely did not question these images and did not even try to verify the source of this information. I don’t know if I can say it’s a source of inspiration, but it certainly intrigued me, especially at a time when we learned that Meta has decided to remove its fact-checking tools from the name of “freedom of expression”.
Museums, YouTube accounts, podcasts, courtyard window… Who are your best inspiration dealers?
C.N. : So I will try to be more concise on these answers ????
– Museums: Le Bal without hesitation is literally my canteen, my bookseller and therefore my refuge in case of bad weather;
– YouTube channel: A good Saturday Night Live (there are some old videos but I’m boomerang late so I have time to catch up with them);
– Podcasts: Serial or those from the New York Times. Totally addicted. I would say Top 3 S-Town, Caliphate NYT and The coldest case of Laramie. But there is also a classic that I listen to all the time Vision(s) which allows you to discover photographers or listen to friends.
Can you send us a photo of a place that nourishes your creativity?
C.N. : As usual, I am unable to choose a single photo… So here is instead “an atmosphere” of a place where I recharge my batteries. The place in question is the one under the snow at the end. At the beginning, I’m just selling you a bit of a dream by trying to make you believe that there can be beauty in 94% humidity in Normandy.
It may not be the place where I’m the most creative, but it’s a breath of fresh air that allows me to be more creative afterwards, especially once I come out of a nap in a hammock.
The advent of generative AI has shaken up the sector, if the uprising of machines is not for tomorrow, what place does AI have in your daily life and your ideation?
C.N. : I use ChatGPT as a search engine or a bit as a slave — I admit it… But otherwise, I obviously use Midjourney and Adobe AI.
I think I also use them less frequently now as DC than when I was DA. At that point, I was much more often behind my computer producing visuals all day. Today, my days are mostly filled with meetings with my colleagues and my clients, who do not yet have their own Artificial Intelligence.
To summarize, I will try things out of curiosity or when for a presentation or a pitch, we need to create a slightly “wow” effect by creating the tailor-made sound or the perfect image. But to say that it is my daily use would be a lie.
What is your first/last prompt?
C.N. : First prompt to ChatGPT: “Give me a Midjourney prompt that will make it realistic”. Final prompt to ChatGPT: “Correct spelling errors in this interview”.
What advertising or strategy would you have liked to imagine?
C.N. : For stupidity and creative freedom, all the ads from Liquid Death or those from Ryan Reynolds’ agency, Maximum Effort. And to mark the history of advertising, Write the Future – Nike.
Tomorrow at 11 a.m., you have a meeting with Bill Bernbach. What are you talking about?
C.N. : The correct answer to this question can only come from the mouth of Alexander Kalchev. So I’m probably going to answer that, but I’ll give it a go: “And if not, what were the influencers like in 1959?”
Cross stitch, collection of thimbles, baritone or soprano voice: do you have a hidden talent or shameful hobby?
C.N. : Hidden talent: knowledgeable about dog breeds. Shameful hobby: Oriental rug cleaning videos on TikTok.
